How to say “angel” in 41 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in Chinese, where 天使 is the 489th most used word.
- Afrikaans engel #864
- Arabic ملك #647
- Armenian հրեշտակ #942
- Basque aingeru #958
- Bengali দেবদূত angel, divine messenger #1,856
- Bosnian anđeo #2,192
- Bulgarian ангел #1,813
- Catalan àngel #2,013
- Chinese 天使 #489
- Croatian anđeo #2,110
- Czech anděl #2,469
- Danish engel #1,828
- Dutch engel #2,221
- Esperanto anĝelo #1,702
- Estonian ingel #1,454
- French ange #1,608
- Galician anxo #1,892
- German engel #1,568
- Hebrew מלאך #1,570
- Icelandic engill #1,349
- Indonesian malaikat #1,099
- Italian angelo #1,827
- Korean 천사 #1,473
- Lithuanian angelas #1,493
- Macedonian ангел #1,332
- Malay malaikat #900
- Malayalam മാലാഖ angel, a messenger of God in Abrahamic… #1,134
- Norwegian engel an angel #2,144
- Persian فرشته #870
- Portuguese anjo #2,043
- Romanian înger #2,213
- Russian ангел #2,443
- Serbian anđeo #2,056
- Slovak anjel #1,024
- Slovenian angel #594
- Spanish ángeles #1,732
- Swedish ängel an angel #2,416
- Tagalog anghel #2,264
- Telugu దేవదూత #752
- Turkish melek angel, an incorporeal and holy messenger from… #1,851
- Urdu فرشتہ #708
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.